Thanks. You know what you are talking about. What chance to you give the procedure. If it fails, would a small nuke work?
Nuking it may actually make matters worse.
I would NOT want to try a "nuke". One of the older ways to SPEED UP production of formations used to be to set off an explosion in them. This opens cracks in the rock so oil can flow more freely.
At one time, it was thought that nuclear explosions would "be perfect" for this, and it was actually tried on a gas formation somewhere out West (in the days of "Project Plowshare". It worked, and production was significantly increased, but it turned out that the gas was too radioactive to use.
An increase in production is NOT what we want here. If the "Top Kill" doesn't work, we'll just need to be patient until the relief wells get done, which is slower but surer.
The following is from "The Oil Drum" (sent by my sis-in-law who is a geophysicist in Houston):
"........the larger numbers that have been quoted in the press, of 70,000 to 100,000 bd are purely sensational and not based on science. Unfortunately they also serve to increase alarm and suggest threats to the tourist industries of Alabama, Mississippi and Florida that do not realistically exist."